"(Medicaid expansion) is the topic of the day. That needs to be complete. Longer-term road funding needs to get complete." - Gov. Rick Snyder

LANSING, MI -- For the third time in as many tries, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has approved a state budget more than three months before deadline. But this time around, he's asking lawmakers to keep working on a few major initiatives that didn't make the cut.

Snyder on Thursday signed off on a $49.5 billion fiscal-year 2014 budget during a ceremony at his office in downtown Lansing, where he was joined by a handful of lawmakers who rushed over from the Capitol amid ongoing debate over Medicaid expansion, which the governor had originally hoped would be part of the finalized budget.

"This is a very solid budget, and I'm proud, but I think we need to keep working hard," Snyder said. "(Medicaid expansion) is the topic of the day. That needs to be complete. Longer-term road funding needs to get complete, but I'm proud that we added $350 million in one-time funding this year."

A Michigan House panel on Wednesday approved a plan to expand Medicaid eligibility -- and reform the program -- using federal funding promised under the Affordable Care Act. House Speaker Jase Bolger, talking to reporters after the signing ceremony, said he was "still optimistic" about a potential floor vote later Thursday. It would allow the bill to reach the Senate next week before lawmakers had planned to leave for summer break.

Medicaid expansion and long-term road funding were key components of the executive budget proposal that that the first-term Republican governor presented to lawmakers in February. The legislature, controlled by members of his own party, failed to include either measure in the budget they sent back to him, but the governor said he was still heartened by the budget, which he called a "outstanding work product."

Snyder highlighted funding that will allow the state to provide more early childhood education opportunities, expand the Health Kids Dental program for low-income kids, increase municipal revenue sharing, hire more state troopers for public safety and invest in K-12 schools, community colleges and universities.

Michigan's K-12 schools will see a three percent bump in overall funding next year, a figure which includes money devoted to retirement costs and early childhood education. Take those out of the equation, and the increase is slightly more than one percent.

Democrats have repeatedly criticized Snyder for failing to invest more in education, arguing that recent increases have not made up for substantial cuts that the governor approved during his first year in office. But Snyder said those cuts were the result of one-time federal stimulus dollars running out. The state, he argued, has increased per-pupil spending every year during his tenure.

"That's where it's good to be an accountant, in terms of actually knowing the numbers and going through the analysis," Snyder said. "If you look at investment in K-12 for the last three years on an overall per-pupil basis, we've increased those dollars. The total amount of increase is $632 in terms of state resources -- state funds -- going into education."

The governor used his line-item veto power to strike two "relatively minor" appropriations from the budget that lawmakers sent him, rejecting funding for a pre-college engineering program that is in the process of being phased out and money for a railroad crossing pilot project designed to allow increased train speeds.

Snyder has also expressed frustration with budget language prohibiting the Michigan Department of Education from using any funding to implement programs or assessments related to Common Core, a set of nationally developed state standards for math and language arts. But his line-item veto power only extends to appropriations, not the lack thereof.

In signing letters sent to lawmakers, the governor also reminded them that "legislative intent" budget language is non-binding. The education omnibus approved by the Republican-led legislature included reporting requirements for universities that conduct embryonic stem-cell research and language directing them not to provide domestic partnership benefits to unmarried "co-residents" of employees.

"While the legislature has every right to state its advice, preferences, or wishes through a statement of intent, such statements do not impose conditions upon appropriations and are non-binding," Snyder wrote.

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter.